The short but often deadly section of I-75 through Lamar County known as the ‘˜Bermuda Triangle’, claimed another victim early Saturday morning. A southbound driver lost control of a large, older model Mercury and ran off the road near mile marker 198 at about 3:15 a.m. The car hit a tree, overturned and caught fire. The driver, the only person in the vehicle, was burned beyond recognition. The body was taken to the state crime lab for identification. After the story was posted on barnesville.com, distraught family members contacted The Herald Gazette expressing concern the driver was Joe Mott. That name matched the tag on the car, according to coroner Jim Smith who later contacted other family members and a ‘˜partner’. Smith said he got confirmation Monday that the driver was Mott. He said Mott left Michigan Friday morning for Florida to visit family. ’He had been driving all day and most of the night when he crashed,’ Smith said. The coroner said a Michigan funeral home will pick up the body from Williams Funeral Home here. Duane Nieminen of Palm Coast is married to Mott’s sister, Sherry, who is in a rehab center there recovering from surgery. That is where Mott was headed, he said. ‘Sherry is the oldest of 11 children. Joe is the third of her brothers to die a violent death. It really hit her hard and I fear for her health,’ Nieminen said Monday.
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